EECS Faculty take on new leadership roles at MIT

Bulovic is new School of Engineering Associate Dean for Innovation; Jesús del Alamo becomes MTL Director

In a recent letter to the MIT Community, MIT President L. Rafael Reif announced the creation of an Institute-wide Initiative on Innovation. Reif selected two MIT faculty to lead this initiative as new Associate Deans for Innovation. Vladimir Bulovic, the Fariborz Maseeh (1990) Professor of Emerging Technology and Director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) will be the MIT School of Engineering’s Associate Dean for Innovation and Fiona Murray, the Alvin J. Siteman (1948) Professor of Entrepreneurship, will be MIT Sloan’s Dean for Innovation. (See MIT News Office Oct. 17 article).

In selecting these two, Reif noted that the feedback he received since Sept. 2012 resulted in two interconnected themes: strengthening MIT’s innovation ecosystem and focussing on manufacturing. Reif, a member of the EECS Department faculty and former Department Head as well as MIT Provost, asked a 19 member Advisory Committee to be led by Murray and Bulovic to engage the MIT community in building the Innovation Initiative, reporting their findings on Jan. 31, 2014. Members of a 19-member advisory panel to be led by Bulovic and Murray include EECS faculty members Yoel Fink (joint with EECS), David Gifford and Ron Weiss. 

In his Oct. 22 letter to the MIT community announcing the new associate deans for innovation, Reif described Vladimir Bulovic’s new role and his earlier leadership as the director of the Organic and Nanostructured Electronics laboratory (the ONE lab), co-director of the Eni-MIT solar Frontiers Center, one of MIT’s largest sponsored programs – in addition to his leadership of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) – supporting over 700 investigators and $80M of research programs from across the Institute. (Read more in the MIT News Office Oct. 17 article.)

Jesús del Alamo, the Donner professor of Science in the EECS Department and a MacVicar Faculty Fellow, has been named director of MTL – a position he assumed on Oct. 28. In an email announcement to the MTL community, School of Engineering Dean Ian Waitz said he is looking forward to del Alamo’s “creative and energetic input as MTL continues to evolve, especially under the institute’s newly announced Innovation Initiative.” (Read more in the Oct. 28 MIT News Office article about del Alamo’s work and leadership in both silicon and compound semiconductor transistor technologies and in the iLab Project which he founded in 1998.)
 

Grimson and Schmidt are named for new leadership roles as Chancellor for Academic Advancement and MIT Acting Provost, respectively
 

MIT President Reif wrote to the MIT community on Oct. 22 announcing the formation of a new role for MIT Chancellor W. Eric Grimson to work with the institute’s faculty and students to ensure their needs and priorities are reflected in the upcoming multiyear multibillion-dollar capital campaign. As noted in the MIT News Office, Oct. 22, 2013 article, Grimson, the Bernard Gordon professor of Medical Engineering (and former head of MIT’s largest department, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) will assume the new ad hoc position of “Chancellor for Academic Advancement” — a key role in making the case for MIT’s fundraising priorities with alumni and donors around the world. (Read more about Eric Grimson’s new role and the work he accomplished as MIT Chancellor since 2011 in the MIT News Oct. 22 article.)

In announcing Eric Grimson’s new role in the MIT capital campaign, President Reif also announced that Martin Schmidt, associate provost since 2008 and professor of electrical engineering and former MTL Director, will become the acting provost on Nov. 1, on the return of current Provost Chris Kaiser to his faculty role. Reif noted Schmidt’s work as associate provost during the challenges of allocating physical space on its campus as MIT responded to the global financial crisis and in the following period, as MIT’s plans for Kendall Square development and improvements. (Read more in President Reif’s MIT News Office Oct. 22 letter to the MIT community.)